Phonics and Reading at Valence

At Valence, we understand that the ability to read enables students to flourish in all aspects of communication and enables independence. We believe that it is our responsibility as a school to give all students ample opportunity to read, and to ensure that students have the necessary support in place to access age-appropriate books.

We acknowledge the importance of phonics in teaching students how to recognise, blend, and pronounce the sounds and combination of sounds that letters and words make. Therefore, our primary students follow a very robust phonics programme Read, Write, Inc, which has been adapted for the students at Valence, including non-verbal students. Structured phonics lessons, with homogenous groups across pathways, are built into the timetable and primary students sit termly phonics assessments, which are used to inform future planning. Where appropriate students will be entered for the statutory phonics screening. Continued professional development for staff leading phonics sessions is paramount and weekly coaching takes place from our in-house phonics lead and we have two phonics development days a year, in which we are visited by our external trainer from ‘Read, Write, Inc’.

Reading Booster Blocks at the end of each school day offer an opportunity for students to foster a love of reading. This is a time in which students may choose a book to read for pleasure. Some students will read independently, whereas others will need more support or adaptive technology, and we ensure that class staff are able to assist students. In some primary, Keller and Simmonds classes, the teacher may choose to read one book as a class and then discuss together.

Where appropriate, students also access Accelerated Reader and complete the Star Reading Assessment to assess their reading age and level. Students then choose their reading book based on their ‘colour’. Once a book on Accelerated Reader has been read, students take a quiz on that book and record their results in their Reading Record.